


Convenience

by TheAddict4Dramatics



Category: The Durrells (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Marriage of Convenience
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 06:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14731763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAddict4Dramatics/pseuds/TheAddict4Dramatics
Summary: “If we were married no one would care if a family friend came to stay with us. A male family friend.”At last the penny dropped. He was describing a good old fashioned marriage of convenience.OrSven and Louisa are both love-lorn and miserable, Sven offers a solution, Spiros gets mad and all the angsty fluff follows.





	Convenience

Louisa took a mouthful of her wine and instantly regretted it. She knew she was drinking too much but every time her eyes met Spiros’ she went for her drink. Margo’s birthday party that she had spent a considerable time planning, it was a failed distraction technique, was passing her by in a haze. Guests were dancing and chatting and eating in her garden before her but every time she looked up from her glass all she saw was Spiro sitting as far away from her as possible, sipping his own drink in melancholic silence. 

 

The cold distance that had appeared between them since his wife had arrived home from Athens was unbearable and yet somehow she knew that if they returned to how it was before it would be even worse. Adversely she needed the pain - she needed to know it was real, not just entirely imagined in her own head, and god did this agony inside of her feel real.

 

Sven was standing in front of her suddenly, she had been too distracted to see him coming. He drank from his beer whilst looming over her, clearly considering her. She didn’t know what conclusion he came to but a moment later he sat down next to her and took her hand in his own, lacing their fingers together in a clear show of comfort. She must have really looked like a miserable cow if Sven had noticed. Still she raised her eyebrows at him. He of course said nothing in reply. Typical Sven. He’d always leave her guessing.

 

“How is Vigo?” Louisa asked after a few moments of comfortable silence. She had only just realised that he wasn’t at the party. Now she came to think about it she didn’t think she had seen him at all since Sven had been released from prison.

 

“Okay I think. He is still in Sweden... I don’t think he will be coming back.” 

 

“What?! Why?” Louisa demanded. Sven gave a little smile in response but she noticed the sadness in it - he looked about as miserable as she felt.

 

“If he comes back the same thing will happen - it will be alright to start with and then rumours will start, pressure will mount on the police to take action and we will be arrested again.” Sven explained quietly. “It’s one big circle.”

 

“Yeah, a vicious one.” She could see he didn’t understand her meaning. That phrase clearly did not translate well to foreign speakers. 

 

Louisa was reminded of what Sven had said to her when Vigo had first arrived in Corfu - that their love was like buried treasure; they could unearth it when no one was paying attention but they always knew they would have to bury it again when people did notice. She hoped they hadn’t buried it for good. What was happening with her and Spiros wasn’t the same of course but she understood for the first time what it felt like to love someone you could never really have, not properly. And she had discovered fairly quickly that forbidden, reciprocated love was the most excruciating kind of all. 

 

“Your turn... now you have to tell me what is going on with you and Spiros...” 

 

“I don’t know what you mean.” Louisa denied at once but she could feel her cheeks glowing red. She didn’t want to talk about him. She couldn’t talk about him if she had any chance of keeping it together until everybody left.

 

“I mean you two are not talking and you can barely stand to look at each other. What happened? You’ve always been so close.” She swallowed nervously - he wasn’t going to drop it and she was clearly doing a terrible job at hiding it any way. She might as well tell him. 

 

“Spiros’ wife left for Athens recently...”

 

“Yes, I heard that.”

 

“Whilst she was gone we... grew closer.” At once Sven’s eyes grew wide in realisation. “It had always been there I suppose but I’d never let myself even imagine it because I knew it could never happen. Then suddenly it wasn’t entirely impossible anymore and I let myself imagine it too much and...” Louisa stopped abruptly when she felt the emotion overcome her. Sven squeezed her hand that still rested in his.

 

“And then his wife came back.” He finished for her. She could only nod and try desperately to keep her tears in. 

 

“But I can’t go back.” She said after a few moments of silence. “I can’t go back to how it was before... the closeness but nothing more... and so we’re left with this... with nothing.” 

 

At last Louisa’s tears did fall. She covered her face with her hands and turned her back on Sven and the other guests, none of whom appeared to be paying them the slightest interest anyway. Sven drew an arm around her front and pulled her back against him. He held her silently whilst she cried. 

 

“Some pair we are, hey?!” She joked when at last the tears had slowed. 

 

“We should get married.” Louisa laughed aloud at his comment. She needed any distraction she could get and she appreciated Sven trying to make her feel better, even if it was with his slightly odd sense of humour.

 

“We tried to go down that path already, remember?” Louisa replied, happy to continue the little game he had started.

 

“No we should. We are good together, we get on, and this time there would be no secrets. We would both know where we stood with each other. We would both know that we loved another.” There was not the slightest hint of jest in his voice.

 

Louisa whirled round in shock, disentangling herself from his embrace to stare, dumbfounded, at him. 

 

“You’re not joking?” She asked, still feeling utterly blindsided. She could not think at all why Sven would suggest that - they were both unable to be with who they wanted to be true enough but since when was marrying each other the next logical step on from that?

 

“We would have more freedom if we were married.” Sven continued. Louisa was still none the wiser as to what he meant. After a moments’ pause Sven sighed in frustration and finally elaborated: “If we were married no one would care if a family friend came to stay with us. A  _male_ family friend.”

 

At last the penny dropped. He was describing a good old fashioned marriage of convenience.

 

“Though Spiros would still be married so perhaps it would not benefit you at all.” Sven admitted once it was clear Louisa was not going to respond straight away. And he was right - the issue wasn’t her marital status it was Spiros’. And she knew he was too honourable to let anything happen whilst he was still properly married. 

 

“That’s not entirely true.” She said at last once her voice had returned to her. She saw Sven’s eyes light up at her words. God he really seemed to want this. “I mean if nothing else it would give me a legitimate reason to rebuff every age appropriate man on the island that Larry seems hell bent on flinging my way.” 

 

Sven smiled at her words. She wasn’t wrong, Larry had indeed been all but throwing men at her. She knew he meant well, it was his way of trying to get her to move on. But she also knew all the men were all damned to fail for the very simple reason that none of them were the right person. The right person, the only right person, was sitting across the garden from her, looking at her close conversation with Sven with ever increasing interest and anger. 

 

“We would be happier than half of the married couples on Corfu.” Sven told her sincerely. She didn’t doubt him, they could be happy, really happy. But would she ever be content that her marriage was built on a falsehood? “Will you think about it?” 

 

“I will.” She promised. 

 

Though she couldn’t help the feeling in her stomach that told her instead of offering a solution Sven had just made everything ten times more complicated. 

 

 

_A few days later…_

“You have no right!” Louisa screamed at him. Her voice was raw with the effort of it and for the first time in days she was at last too angry to cry.

 

She was glad that by some small miracle the house was empty bar the two of them. All of the children and all of the added house guests she was now entertaining had gone exploring elsewhere on the island which left her and Spiros to have their flaming row in private. News of the possible engagement to Sven had reached his ears, of course it had – rumours spread faster than wild fire in a place as small as Corfu. She had told Larry who had told Margo who had mentioned it to Theo who had informed Spiros and now he was there. He’d pulled up to house in rage like she had never seen. She’d witnessed his temper before of course, he was known for yelling until he got his own way but this was something else. Instead of intimidating her however it had just pissed off, really pissed her off.

 

“You have absolutely no right to say that to me!” She repeated, just as heated. The first thing out of his mouth had been a shouted order that she could not marry Sven and the whole thing had escalated from there.

 

“I know.” Spiros conceded. His voice the most calm it had been since he had arrived many minutes before but still far from friendly. “I know. But don’t marry him. I don’t want you to.” Louisa let out a sarcastic laugh and threw her hands up towards the sky in exasperation. Her anger had not abated yet

 

“Well I want you to go back in time and not marry your wife. Will you do that for me?” She asked sarcastically.

 

There was distain dripping from every word she spoke and it caused Spiros to dip his head down and break eye contact with her. Louisa cursed herself silently as she felt hot tears prickle behind her eyes. It was her own words that had caused her the upset – voicing her greatest, most impossible, cruellest wish. It felt like the walls were crashing down around her. As if he sensed this Spiros reached forward to grab her arm but she shook him off, shoving at his chest for good measure until he stumbled backwards. She turned and headed for the house but she could feel him following her. Before she reached the door he grabbed her arm again, prepared for her shrug off this time he kept hold of her easily, he was infinitely stronger than she was, and he spun her around until she was facing him, her back against the wall.

 

“You want me to be alone and miserable forever whilst you go home and play happy families.” Louisa accused him. She needed to keep on the attack. If she relented, even for a moment she would give in to just how intoxicating it was to have him so close when she missed him so dearly. At her words she saw the shift in Spiros’ eyes – the anger was back just as it had been when he had first arrived – his irises burnt with the fire of it.

 

“Happy?” He repeated, the grip on her arms tightening until it was almost painful. _Almost_. “You think I am happy? You think that I am not thinking about you all of the time?!” He roared. He released her and swung for a pot of flowers that was resting on a nearby table. The pot smashed, the flowers disbursing themselves amongst ruins. “You are driving me crazy!”

 

“That’s not my fault!” She yelled back as the tears flowed heavily down her cheeks.

 

“And it’s not mine either!”

 

She moved to get past him but he blocked her way, his hands on her shoulders pushed her back against the wall. She was trapped. Rationally she should have felt scared – he was strong, angry as hell and not letting her leave – but she wasn’t scared, not in the slightest. Her heart was beating out of her chest and she was beginning to feel the almost forgotten tightening in her lower stomach. She was excited. She pushed at him again but he did not budge and then she slapped him, hard and crisp right across his left cheek. Suddenly the house was silent; the waves stopped breaking against the shore and the animals stopped moving as the sound of skin hitting skin rang out around them. He was deathly still for one moment before his lips crashed down upon hers. It was probably the least romantic embrace of her life – it was all fiery, angry passion and no tenderness. Their bodies wrestled against each other’s, arms constantly tugging at each other though it was unclear whether they were trying to push apart or pull further together. Their teeth nipped, outright bit at lips and skin and their tongues battled for dominance. She hadn’t felt this way since… who was she kidding? She had never felt this way – as if she were going to expire from the sheer need of another person.

 

And just as quickly as it had begun it was over. Spiros stepped back from her, his eyes cast resolutely on the floor as his hands rested on his hips and his chest heaved to catch up on his breathing. She didn’t need to see his eyes to know what he was feeling, his body was singing out with it – _shame_. Shame that he had given in to his most basic, animalistic urge. Shame that it had happened like that, so full of rage when it should have been full of love. Shame that he had most likely hurt her, physically hurt her in the process. He took a half step away from her and she knew he was about to flee. Before he had the chance she took a step towards him, closing the distance between them once more, she took his face in both of her hands and kissed him again.

 

And oh how different this kiss was. The last one had been all of the frustration and hurt between them but this one, this one was all Spiros – fiery and passionate but somehow gentle too, and loving, so loving she wanted to cry all over again. One of his hands found its way around her back to pull her gently closer to him whilst the other leaned on the wall behind her. She was trapped once more but it was nothing like before – she was trapped in his affection for her and it was glorious. He kissed her as if he were a drowning man and she alone was the oxygen that could save him. Louisa moaned softly into his mouth and tightened her hold around the back of his neck, pressing herself into him even further until their bodies were barely distinguishable from one and others.

 

After several long moments she broke apart from him and placed a hand in the centre of his chest, pushing firmly until he got the message and took a step back. She could see the rejection burning in his eyes but she only smiled – there was not a single part of her that could have rejected him in that moment if she had tried. She took his hand in her own and started to walk backwards to the open door, pulling him with her. His eyes bore into hers as she led him through the kitchen and towards the stairs. The intensity of his gaze would have made her blush once upon a time but she was no longer as English as she had been and now it just made her all the more bold. As they ascended the stairs slowly his unspoken question was clear: _are you sure?_ She gave another little smile and nodded as they reached her bedroom. She led him inside and closed the door after them. She had never been surer of anything in her life.     

 

 

_A few hours later…_

 

Louisa took a long drag from the cigarette she had sneakily pinched from Larry. She hadn’t smoked in months, and it had never been something that she did regularly but god did she need it after the day she had had. She could hear her children and their houseguests inside the house, all chatting animatedly, but she needed the solace the abandoned garden gave her. 

 

Spiros’ philosophy on women, as she had once overheard, was that they were all goddesses. The way he had bedded her earlier certainly proved that – it felt as if he had worshipped every inch of her body. Even thinking about it now made her blush. She had never felt that way, as if she were going to explode with desire for another person. She had only ever been with her husband before and whilst she had always loved being with him in that way what had transpired earlier had been on an entirely new level. She knew she would drive herself crazy thinking about it in the coming days and weeks. 

 

She’d fallen into a hazy, sated sleep afterward still wrapped in his arms but she had awoken later to find the bed empty. He hadn’t returned since. Only the both familiar and long forgotten ache between her thighs proved that the encounter had happened at all. 

 

She had no idea how he had felt about it after the fact. During, well during it had been pretty clear how he felt about it. Or had it? She’d been so caught up with her own seesawing emotions perhaps she had imagined his equal desire. She closed her eyes and let the images of him fill her mind - his weight pressing down upon her, his fingers interlocking with her own, his lips on her neck. The way he groaned when they finally joined as if it was everything he had ever wanted. No she definitely hadn’t imagined that. 

 

Louisa opened her eyes and jolted when she saw the man himself standing in front of her. She had been so lost in her own thoughts she had not heard him pull up or leave the car.

 

“Can we talk...  _calmly?_ ” Spiro asked, his voice was quiet and even and so different to what it had been when he’d first arrived earlier. Louisa remained silent but nodded her head. “Married yet?” The corners of his mouth turned up in jest and she laughed. Okay so they were joking and laughing now. Well that was something, more than something. This almost felt like _them_ again.

 

“You mean in the four hours since we last spoke? Oddly enough, no.” She teased back.

 

“Then don’t.” All of the playfulness had gone now.

 

“Spiros...”

 

“No listen…” He interrupted her before taking a big breath and continuing: “My marriage is over.” He told her gravely. She slumped forward in shock, the cigarette falling from between her fingers.

 

“What? You’ve left your wife?” Once more there were tears behind her eyes that she was refusing to let fall. She seemed to be unable to be around him without bursting into tears at any given moment. 

 

“No. I was going to.” Spiros admitted. She could tell this conversation was difficult for him so she remained silent, giving him the time he needed. “She beat me to it. She’s left me for another man on the island. She says she wants us to share the children and she says it will be better for everyone if we’re not together.” 

 

“I’m sorry.” Louisa told him sincerely. Her heart broke for him, despite what this might mean for them. She knew how painful it must be for him for his family to break apart this way. She wanted to reach out and touch him, to comfort him but she resisted.

 

“Don’t be. I think she is right - I think everyone might be happier this way.” He said though he still sounded grave. She gave him a wobbly smile and was just about to get up and go to him when he started speaking again: “This doesn’t change anything, I am still unable to marry. I don’t know how long a divorce will take. I don’t even know if it is possible.” 

 

Louisa didn’t know if it was possible either. For rich people in America or England yes, but for working class taxi drivers on a poor, conservative island like Corfu... she doubted it was a regular occurrence or if it had ever happened before. 

 

“I don’t care about that.” She said at once. Spiros was visibly taken aback. “I don’t.” She repeated, trying to convince him. She had surprised herself. She should care – she was a respectable woman, she should care if her lover was married but she really, really didn’t. “Do you want to be with me?” 

 

He looked at her as if he couldn’t believe she would even ask that question. 

 

“Yes.” He told her simply. Though the word held so much gravity between them.

 

“Then that’s enough for me.”   

 

At last she did go to him and as soon as she reached him he pulled her into a strong embrace. One of his hands cupped the back of her head, whilst the other found the small of her back as he placed a solid kiss to her hairline. She sighed in contented relief. It had only been a few hours but she had missed being in his arms she realised. 

 

“We can live in gloriously happy sin for the rest of our lives if we have to. It doesn’t matter to me.” She whispered into his neck and she felt the little chuckle her words produced. 

 

When she pulled away her lips found his naturally as if they had been doing this for years – the gentle, everyday caresses of a couple who knew each other completely. It all felt so natural like there was nothing else at all in the world that she should be doing in that moment other than kissing this man.

 

“I love you.” No, she definitely wasn’t imaging it this time. “I always have, right from the beginning.” He confessed quietly to her.

 

“I love you too.” 

 

And just as she was about to kiss him again – 

 

“Mother!” Leslie’s cry echoed from inside the house. “One of the goats has gotten into the new guests’ room and it’s trying to eat the mattress!” Louisa and Spiros smiled at each other. Her house was ridiculous.

 

“Is there ever any peace in your house?” Spiros teased her.

 

“You should know the answer to that by now.”  

 

“Mother!!” Leslie bellowed again, even louder this time. 

 

“Yes I’m coming darling!” Louisa called back though she didn’t move from Spiros’ arms. “Don’t go.” She instructed him gently. He smile and nodded, leaning down to give her a parting kiss to her forehead but it wasn’t enough so she raised herself onto her tiptoes to catch his lips. They enjoyed their latest embrace until Leslie’s ever increasing yells interrupted them again. Louisa groaned into his mouth. 

“Duty calls.” Spiros told her softly.

 

She disentangled herself from him, albeit reluctantly and made her way to the open doorway. Once she reached it she turned back to see Spiros watching her go. The look in his eyes made her stomach spike unexpectedly. Finally all seemed as it should be.

 

_End._  


End file.
